PRICE FIVE CENTS, 
82.00 FEB. YEAR. 
VOL. XXXVIII. No. 24 
WHOLE No. 1533. 
[Entered according: to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of OongresB at Washington.! 
Kural ^rtfiitrtitrf, 
HI8T0RY OF A POOR FARM.-No. 10. 
A bakn is the farmer’s workshop or manu¬ 
factory, aud if it is badly arranged or the yards 
about it are inconvenient for handling the 
stock, much time is lost and labor thrown 
away. When I came into possession of my farm, 
there was no barnyard, and, practically, no 
barns. A few tumble-down, “ ramshackle," 
old barracks, aud a dilapidated shed, which 
had done duty in past ages as the local school- 
house, comprised the farm buildings, along 
with a small, bright-red-painted building, 
which was nearly new and which, like a shiny, 
new hat upon a ragamultlu tramp, only made 
the general raggeduess and wretchedness of 
the rest of the belongings more conspicuous. 
Nio stock had been kept on the place for some 
years ; my old neighbor had informed me that 
for over 30 years one horse and one cow were 
the most he remembered being kept there at 
one time, so that the buildings were hardly 
needed aud a yard for manure, where no man¬ 
ure was ever, or hardly ever, seen, was of 
course superfluous. The rough sketch giveu 
ou page 375, represents the character of the 
buildings and the general appearance of the 
“key to the farm” at that time. The only 
vehicle kept about the sheds at that time, was 
a dilapidated wheel-barrow, which, I suppose, 
was used to convey the harvest from the fields 
to the barns. The yard was unfeueed, nor was 
there any use for a fence. Such a yard is not 
altogether uuique; others can be found else¬ 
where much of the same character, but then 
there are other poor farms besides the one of 
whose history I am telling. 
The first outlay made after I came into pos¬ 
session, was for building a barn in which to 
keep Borne cows. The site of this was chosen 
where, in the old barnyard, a crazy, old barrack 
with broken roof, stood at the foot of a slope. 
Here was a good chance to put a basement 
stable with manure cellar. This was made 50 
feet long, 34 feet wide, 10 feet high, and with a 
cellar or basement wall of brick, seven feet 
high in the dear. Part of this basement was 
intended to receive the manure from the floor 
above; aud at the east 
end (the barn faces the 
south) was made a cel¬ 
lar for roots. A long 
shed was built connect¬ 
ing the brilliant red baru 
with the new building, 
aud 43 feet long, 30 feet 
wide, aud 13 feet high 
to the eaves; one end 
was used for a stable 
for three horses aud the 
other parts were open 
sheds for tools, ma¬ 
chines, wagons, etc. At 
the foot of the hill on 
the west, was a fine 
spring over which a milk- 
house was built, and a 
pipe was laid from the 
spring to a pump in 
the yard, before which 
was placed a long water¬ 
ing trough accessible 
from both yards. Two 
barracks were made in 
the yard east of the barn 
for storiug straw or 
hay, aud these were in. 
closed half way up and 
used wheu needed for 
calf peus, and pens for 
incoming cows. The 
space between these bar¬ 
racks, 30 feet long, aud 
16 feet wide, was made 
into a yard for the pure 
Ayrshire bull which was 
selected from a first-rate herd, as the foun¬ 
dation for the making of a dairy herd. In 
the front, at the east of the first yard, was 
built an office and store-room, and here are 
held the. agreeable chats which go to make up 
a large portion of the history of this poor 
farm. The plan has no particular merit, ex¬ 
cept that it is convenient and cheap. It suited 
the arrangement of the fields and the charac¬ 
ter of the ground, and it utilized what there 
was worth anything in the old arrangement. 
The yards are perfectly well protected from 
the north aud northwest winds, are sheltered 
aud warm. 
“ What do you want of so many yards ?” 
asked my old neighbor, as I was explaining 
the result of my building. 
“I find them very convenient for handling 
the cows with very little labor.” I replied. 
“The cows are turned out after feeding in the 
morning into the yard in front of the barn, 
where there is water and shelter in bad weath¬ 
er, under the open sheds. Here they can stay 
while the men are at work on the farm else¬ 
where, and remaiu until it is time for the noon 
feed. They are then driven into the next yard, 
where there are some feed racks, aud into 
which Fred has previously brought a load of 
rye from the field. The racks are filled, and 
then the cows are turned into the yard, where 
they feed during the dinner hour. After din¬ 
ner they are put into the baru and given, each, 
three quarts of mixed feed of two-thirds of 
ground corn, oats and wheat bran and one- 
third of cotton-seed meal, when they lie down 
on a clean bed which has been prepared for 
them, in a clean, cool stable darkened by shut¬ 
ters, aud rest until afternoon milking time, 
which is half after four. The large yard is for 
the horses aud for hltehiug to the wagons aud 
tools, so that everything is done separately and 
in order, and no time is lost. When the cows 
are shut up in the baru, the bull and the calves 
are turned iuto the yard aud consume what the 
cows have not used. Not a single dropping of 
manure is lost aud not a leaf or blade of vege¬ 
tation is trampled upon or spoiled." 
“ It costs too much money,” objected my old 
friend. 
“I don’t care for that,” remarked Mr. Mar¬ 
tin. “ If one has the money to spend he can¬ 
not use it better. 1 thiuk the plan is a good 
one, ’with some exceptions. It was made to 
save the red barn, aud it would have been 
cheaper to burn that up than to spoil a good 
plan ou account of it. It is like building a new 
carriage to au old pair of wheels, or making a 
new coat to suit a set of old buttons." 
“I think that old barn you object to worth 
saving,” said I. “In remodeling old buildings, 
I would save what could be kept and made 
usefnl. The old red barn serves to store hay 
for horses and a door is cut from the ioft into 
a feediug room above the new horse stable, so 
that in that business, time and work are saved. 
In stormy weather the men can pass from the 
old barn through the upper floor of the shed, 
where tools are kept, into the cow baru, and do 
their work there without going out-of-doors; 
and by using the water from the cistern in the 
rear of the barn, which takes the roof water, 
and from which a pipe from a pump is brought 
into the barn, the cows aud horses can be wat¬ 
ered in-doors, if desired. I have studied econ¬ 
omy of labor, and I want to show our old 
friend that in saving labor 1 save money. The 
money laid out in these buildings and yards 
will save half of one man’s time in attending 
to the stock, which will be equal to $150 a year, 
and that will pay 10 per cent, interest in the 
cost of the whole arrangement.” 
§ culls man. 
JERSEY COWS. 
T. H. HOSKINS. M. D. 
Claims of their Friends. 
A few years ago I interviewed a Short-horn 
breeder upon what he regarded as the objec¬ 
tions to Jerseys. I said to him that it was 
claimed there were no herds of dairy cows in 
New Euglaud which could average 300 pounds 
of butter a year per cow, except those having 
Jersey blood in them; also, that there were 
no herds whose butter was so uniformly of 
good color, nor, when properly manufactured, 
of such firmuess, perfection of grain aud ex¬ 
cellence of flavor; that, in short, a Jersey 
HISTORY OF A POOR FARM.—The Barn-Yard as it Is.— (See p, 37S for “As it was.”) 
herd would yield more and better butter than 
a herd of au equal number of any other kind, 
with the same feed and care. 
Charges Against Them. 
My Short-horn friend answered—first de¬ 
nying that Jersey butter was any better 
than Short-born butter—that the Jerseys are 
worth little or nothing for beef, or for raising 
veal calves; that they are of no value for 
cheese, or for market-milk, or for auything 
but butter; that the bulls are as daugerous as 
tigers; that the cows are nervous, high-strung 
creatures, and very apt to be kickers; that 
they are not hardy iu our climate, and are 
especially liable to attacks of garget; that 
they are enormous eaters, aud require much 
grain feed in proportion to the quantity of 
milk yielded. This was the whole indictment, 
as made out by my friend. I think he acci¬ 
dentally omitted to charge that their hides do 
not make so much leather as those of Short¬ 
horns. 
Charges Investigated. 
I then inquired of another friend, who had 
been an extensive breeder of Jerseys, but who 
had shifted to Ayrshires because grade Ayr- 
shires give much larger messes of milk, and 
his sales were mainly of choice village cows, 
the buyers of wbieli want to sell surplus milk 
to help pay the cows’ keep. I showed him the 
Short-horn man’s charges, and requested his 
candid criticism thereon, which was given as 
follows: To the first objection, he said the 
Jerseys make no pretensions to being a beef 
breed. The true question was whether, taking 
twd average herds, one of Jerseys aud Jersey 
grades, the other of Short-liorns aud Short-horn 
grades, keep mg a strict account of cost and 
keep on one side, and of sales of produce— 
butter, beef and veal calves—on the other, the 
profit will incline iu favor of either, and if of 
cither, of which ? If the milk were made into 
butter and sold in the same market, it was his 
judgmeut that the extra quantity of the Jersey 
butter, without any allowance for quality or 
auy saving in feed in an equal number of cows, 
would more than balance any profit from sales 
of beef aud veal. But if the milk were made 
iuto cheese, or sold for market milk, the Short¬ 
horns, if good milkers, would pay best. This 
answer to the first count 
covers the second, also. 
In regard to the fierce¬ 
ness of Jersey bulls, he 
said they are often un¬ 
ruly, especially if kept 
confined. But he be¬ 
lieved that a bull of this 
breed might easily be so 
reared and bandied as 
to be quite safe, with or¬ 
dinary precaution. 
The fourth objection, 
the nervousness of the 
cows, he said was an 
objection only with those 
who make use of milk¬ 
ing - stool gestures and 
cowhide - boot discipline 
iu the cow-stable. He 
thought kicking men 
made kicking cows, and 
that while the Jerseys 
are not yet so thor¬ 
oughly christianized as 
to love their enemies, 
they know their friends. 
They are a lady-like 
breed of cows, and will 
submit to be handled only 
by gentle men. 
As to hardiuess, he ob¬ 
served that the Jerseys 
will not endure as much 
roughuess as the poorer 
class of native cows, but 
they are healthy aud long 
lived under the only trea 
